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Passports at the ready, City jet off to South Africa for the first leg of their pre-season tour on Wednesday night.

The Blues’ 31-strong party bound for Africa features an intriguing blend of promising youth and international experience.

Included alongside first-team regulars such as Edin Dzeko, Yaya Toure and Vincent Kompany will be EDS regulars like Emyr Huws, Karim Rekik and Eirik Johansen.

Swedish starlet John Guidetti will also travel, along with Denis Suarez, Shay Facey, Devante Cole and Alex Nimely.

Sergio Aguero and Pablo Zabaleta will not be on the initial flight but will join up mid-way through the squad’s time in South Africa after being given a few extra days to rest after their South American World Cup qualification exploits for Argentina in June.

David Silva and Jesus Navas will meet the team on the Hong Kong leg of the pre-season tour after they both played full roles in Spain’s run to the 2013 Confederations Cup final in Brazil.

Manuel Pellegrini’s men jet out of Manchester on Wednesday night ahead of the Chilean’s first game in charge, the Nelson Mandela Football Invitational match against Supersport United at Lotus Versfeld on Sunday.

That game is followed hot on the heels by the game against AmaZulu in Durban on 18 July.

We’ll be with the first-team squad every step of the way in South Africa, Hong Kong, Munich and Helsinki this summer, so make sure you keep checking mcfc.co.uk for all the summer news and tour features first.

Full squad

Goalkeepers: Joe Hart, Costel Pantilimon, Richard Wright, Eirik Johansen

Defenders: Micah Richards, Maicon, Pablo Zabaleta, Aleksandar Kolarov, Gael Clichy, Karim Rekik, Joleon Lescott, Vincent Kompany, Matija Nastasic, Dedryck Boyata, Shay Facey

Midfielders: James Milner, Fernandinho, Samir Nasri, Gareth Barry, Denis Suarez, Emyr Huws, Scott Sinclair, Javi Garcia, Jack Rodwell, Abdul Razak, Yaya Toure

Forwards: Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko, John Guidetti, Alex Nimely, Devante Cole

Surprised to see Nimely there, thought he was finished here. I think I saw some stats a while back that he has scored one goal in 20-30 appearances during his loans.

Thought Lopes would've been there too but he's young so he has time.

And is Guidetti's recovery going better than expected? Saw him in some training photos on the OS and now he's in this squad too

a bit suprised rekik is making the trip; thought he'd be at psv by then. i'll be interested to see how suarez looks, and whether he'll end up on loan somewhere or if he'll sniff the fringes of the first team this season.

I checked earlier and devante cole wasn't on it,must of got added late. It's a pretty weak front line our priorities really lie there.

Thought Sinclair was meant to be out as well, missing the first months of the season or something.

Dubciteh wrote:I checked earlier and devante cole wasn't on it,must of got added late. It's a pretty weak front line our priorities really lie there.

Pre season is a really good place to see how these players gel with the first team in a competitive situation. Good mix imo

I nearly made the squad, damn that last man!

Trying to get some freebies to meet up in Munich, not sure I can make the City though ..... feel unclean.

theres some good new videos of this trip, training, and a pellegrini interview on the OS

phips wrote:theres some good new videos of this trip, training, and a pellegrini interview on the OS

Really enjoyed those vids, Micah is such a clown!!!


Anyone know if the games there are being televised?

I was wondering the same thing. United's match (which they lost, hah!) is, of course, on television here but City's match tomorrow isnt...

What time in the UK is the game tomorrow? The OS only lists local South African time and I am too lazy to even look up and time difference let alone calculate it ...

AG7 wrote:What time in the UK is the game tomorrow? The OS only lists local South African time and I am too lazy to even look up and time difference let alone calculate it ...

One hour ahead of us - it's like playing in Europe.

Sergio Aguero ‏@aguerosergiokun 6m
My nice restful holidays are over. Headed to South Africa now, very eager to join @MCFC for preseason.